About Borrelia

General information:
Belongs to an ancient phylum of bacteria called spirochetes. The long, thin serpentine morphology is the signature feature shared among spirochetes.
The only members of this phylum that must be transmitted among vertebrate hosts, including humans, by an arthropod vector.
Classified into two major evolutionary groups, the Lyme borreliosis (LB) clade and the relapsing fever (RF) clade.
Most spirochaetes lack classic lipopolysaccharide in the outer membrane and are described as Gram-negative-like bacteria.
Characteristics:
Small genomes with a single linear chromosome and several linear and circular plasmids, a unique feature among eubacteria. The linear replicons are terminated by covalently closed hairpins, an exceedingly infrequent structure in any type of DNA. These structures require a specialized enzyme, a telomere resolvase, for replication of the DNA and maintenance of the hairpin telomeres.
The abundance of lipoproteins (some in the outer membrane), glycolipids, and cholesteryl glycolipids arranged in clusters.
B. burgdorferi has lost iron-requiring proteins and uses manganese instead of iron as a component of the few metalloproteins that it encodes.
Borrelia species encode an efficient antigenic variation system that is essential for persistence.
B. burgdorferi harbors a fragmented and reduced genome lacking genes required for numerous metabolic and regulatory pathways, including genes that encode proteins for the de novo synthesis of amino acids, nucleotides, and enzyme cofactors. B. burgdorferi must scavenge these critical nutrients from its host environments to survive.
Disease:
Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato are the causative agents of Lyme disease. The organisms produce no known toxins. Pathogenesis appears to be primarily due to the induction of inflammatory reactions in the infected mammalian host.
Borrelia hermsii and Borrelia miyamotoi species cause tick-borne relapsing fever, while B. recurrentis causes louse-borne relapsing fever.
Selected genomes: ⇒ comparative pathogenomics ⇐
B. afzelii Tom3107, 905861 bp, NZ_CP009212
B. bavariensis PBi chromosome linear, 904246 bp, NC_006156
B. burgdorferi B31, 910724 bp, NC_001318
B. garinii JAASAAF1041, 905692 bp, NZ_CP075232
B. hermsii ML2, 922482 bp, NZ_CP084623
B. mayonii MN14-1420, 904387 bp, NZ_CP015780
B. recurrentis A1, 930981 bp, NC_011244
B. valaisiana VS116, 913294 bp, NZ_ABCY02000001
VF-related plasmids:
B. afzelii Tom3107 cp26, 26561 bp, NZ_CP009213
B. afzelii Tom3107 lp54, 55230 bp, NZ_CP009214
B. bavariensis PBi cp26, 27108 bp, NC_006128
B. bavariensis PBi lp54, 55560 bp, NC_006129
B. burgdorferi B31 cp26, 26498 bp, NC_001903
B. burgdorferi B31 cp32-1, 30750 bp, NC_000948
B. burgdorferi B31 cp32-3, 30223 bp, NC_000949
B. burgdorferi B31 cp32-6, 29838 bp, NC_000951
B. burgdorferi B31 cp32-9, 30651 bp, NC_000954
B. burgdorferi B31 lp28-1, 28155 bp, NC_001851
B. burgdorferi B31 lp28-3, 28601 bp, NC_001853
B. burgdorferi B31 lp36, 36849 bp, NC_001855
B. burgdorferi B31 lp54, 53561 bp, NC_001857
B. burgdorferi B31 lp56, 52971 bp, NC_000956
B. burgdorferi ZS7 ZS7_cp32-12, 29806 bp, NC_011735
B. burgdorferi ZS7 ZS7_lp36, 36852 bp, NC_011778
B. hermsii ML2 lpB_ML2, 57050 bp, NZ_OL311417
B. mayonii MN14-1420 cp26, 26861 bp, NZ_CP015781
B. mayonii MN14-1420 cp32-13, 27866 bp, NZ_CP015783
B. mayonii MN14-1420 cp32-4, 30406 bp, NZ_CP015785
B. mayonii MN14-1420 cp32-6, 17017 bp, NZ_CP015786
B. mayonii MN14-1420 lp28-10, 23812 bp, NZ_CP015790
B. mayonii MN14-1420 lp54, 53359 bp, NZ_CP015795
B. recurrentis A1 pl124, 123937 bp, NC_011246
B. recurrentis A1 pl23, 22945 bp, NC_011252
B. recurrentis A1 pl33, 33213 bp, NC_011253
B. recurrentis A1 pl37, 36869 bp, NC_011258
B. recurrentis A1 pl53, 52772 bp, NC_011260
B. valaisiana VS116 VS116_cp26, 26875 bp, NC_012129
B. valaisiana VS116 VS116_cp32-2-7, 27367 bp, NC_012131
B. valaisiana VS116 VS116_cp32-5, 23419 bp, NC_012128
B. valaisiana VS116 VS116_lp28-3, 81995 bp, NC_012185
B. valaisiana VS116 VS116_lp54, 53953 bp, NC_012177
Genome-related publications:
Fraser CM, et al., 1997. Genomic sequence of a Lyme disease spirochaete, Borrelia burgdorferi. Nature 390(6660):580-6.
Glöckner G, et al., 2004. Comparative analysis of the Borrelia garinii genome. Nucleic Acids Res 32(20):6038-46.
Lescot M, et al., 2008. The genome of Borrelia recurrentis, the agent of deadly louse-borne relapsing fever, is a degraded subset of tick-borne Borrelia duttonii. PLoS Genet 4(9):e1000185.
Kurilshikov AM, et al., 2014. Complete Genome Sequencing of Borrelia valaisiana and Borrelia afzelii Isolated from Ixodes persulcatus Ticks in Western Siberia. Genome Announc 2(6):e01315-14.
Kingry LC, et al., 2016. Whole Genome Sequence and Comparative Genomics of the Novel Lyme Borreliosis Causing Pathogen, Borrelia mayonii. PLoS One 11(12):e0168994.
Figures:
(From: Bernard Q, et al., 2019. Borrelia burgdorferi protein interactions critical for microbial persistence in mammals. Cell Microbiol 21(2):e12885.).

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